What is our primary use case?
My primary use case for iCIMS Recruit includes candidate tracking, job requisition management, workflow management, candidate filtering, interview management, offer management, and onboarding. I use iCIMS Recruit for reporting analytics and the applicant tracking system to get candidates in the talent acquisition platform, particularly for an organization hiring at scale and needing configurability, integrations, and reporting. This represents quite an extensive use for primarily recruiting purposes.
What is most valuable?
iCIMS Recruit offers very impressive candidate tracking and well-thought job requisition management. The platform allows me to manage the entire workflow, and the filtering and searching of candidates is amazing. I have seen very good interview management tools and the offer management system is also excellent with everything centralized within one applicant tracking system. Good reporting, onboarding scale, communications on recruitment, and configurable workflow are all strengths of the platform. The customization is probably one of the strongest points in iCIMS Recruit.
The major reason I chose iCIMS Recruit is that everything is under one system, and I do not have to log in and log out of multiple applications. Multiple business units can use it at the same time. Different hiring stages, approval processes, locations, and hiring manager workflows can all exist under one centralized system, allowing different recruiting processes across countries and business units and employee populations. I can have 20 recruiters and a relatively simple process with this platform. This is how valuable iCIMS Recruit is to my organization.
Another value of iCIMS Recruit is the ability to connect this platform to HRIS and HCM systems. The background checking integration is very good, and assessment providers can be integrated if needed. Good job boards connectivity and sourcing platforms are available as well. Integrating with payroll and HR systems is another strong feature of iCIMS Recruit.
What needs improvement?
Implementation can be a bit lengthy and complicated, which is an area where iCIMS Recruit needs improvement. Customer support and automation are areas where iCIMS Recruit is less impressive, and they need to improve more on automation processes. Configurability could be a bit higher because some competitors might have an edge in terms of UX, recruiting workflow, modern recruiter experiences, and sourcing or CRM-oriented experiences. A native HCM is important because many times I have to integrate with different HCMs like Workday or SAP.
Pricing is not very transparent, as sometimes I have to keep adding things and they keep adding more prices in terms of lower cost and faster implementation. Some user functionality can require too many steps. Customer support can be inconsistent sometimes, and I have seen some delays. The iCIMS Recruit support team does not always provide very proactive support. Implementations are usually very lengthy and they really need to improve their implementation strategy to cut down a substantial amount of time.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using iCIMS Recruit for almost six to seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
iCIMS Recruit is a very stable platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
iCIMS Recruit is quite scalable. I have no problems with their scalability because I have seen that my organization has grown in multiple different regions and countries, and at the same time, they have supported me very well. I have experienced their scalability in real-time with my different regions and countries where we operate, so they are definitely scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for iCIMS Recruit can be improved. I have seen some delays and sometimes inconsistent support, so that can definitely be improved a lot more.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I was previously using Taleo and have also used a couple of other systems, but iCIMS Recruit proved to be a better system compared to what I previously used.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing for iCIMS Recruit is acceptable, but not really very transparent because many times I keep adding things and they keep adding more prices in terms of lower cost and faster implementation. In terms of pricing, I have not seen very transparent pricing from iCIMS yet. They always give me a quote based on the requirement because they do not generally publish a very simple, transparent per-user price list or per-seat price list. As an enterprise buyer, I definitely think about the cost as modules or implementation cost, any other integration, and data migration, additional licenses, user support services, or maybe renewal increases, and bundled packages.
The annual license is a better cost-saving metric if I go for a long-term relationship or long-term purchase from them, such as for a three-year total cost of ownership. I have not seen any need for anything outside of iCIMS Recruit to perform those tasks. This is definitely cost-saving, and I can still add a few more modules where I can work with iCIMS Recruit without having to spend more money.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated other options as well, including SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, and a few others. iCIMS Recruit definitely came out as a clear winner for my requirements in my RFP process.
What other advice do I have?
I have done a lot of work on automation, AI sourcing, and automation screening. Because my previous ATS was outdated and we have been growing rapidly, I needed a standalone, consolidated ATS system, and iCIMS Recruit fits very well. I have been using it quite successfully for many years now.
My time to fill rate was pretty bad, about 120 to 150 days for some senior leadership and mid to senior level positions. Since I started using iCIMS Recruit, my time to fill rate metric has come below 75 days now. There has been a very impressive change in terms of saving not just weeks but almost months in terms of time for the time to fill rate metric. Sourcing was a big pain point to source candidates externally, and iCIMS Recruit has provided this functionality which I have been using quite efficiently. Customization in terms of approval processes, which used to take very long, hiring stages, different locations, and compliance have all improved quite significantly through the use of iCIMS Recruit.
There is a great learning curve when using iCIMS Recruit. I have seen a lot more support coming from iCIMS in that particular segment. My organization, especially my entire recruitment team, has experienced a lot more efficiency and improved working in terms of the ATS functionality. Everything was manual before, and then came iCIMS Recruit where substantial configuration is available. The UX and UI are very good. I have seen a lot more operational efficiency, productivity, and saving of man-hours in doing a lot more work that was being done outside of ATS.
Although I am still happy with iCIMS Recruit, based on what I have seen, there can be a lot more improvement in many other things in terms of scalability, workflow management, and some candidate tracking. Those are a few things which they really need to work on so that the whole core ATS capability is improved. On the security side, I give iCIMS Recruit probably 5 out of 10, and AI again is an area where they are less AI native yet, still in very early stages, so I do not see too much AI capability and functionality. That is where they are lacking compared to many other counterparts and competitors, so they really need to work on AI capabilities. Governance is acceptable and security is not too bad, but if they want to experiment more on AI capabilities, then they need more governance and security improvements.
iCIMS Recruit is accurate and reliable. I do not see much discrepancy in terms of their reliability and output. It depends on what sort of data has been fed into the system. If the data is accurate which is fed into the system, accuracy is not a question.
I would describe iCIMS Recruit as a strong enterprise ATS where the biggest value comes from scalability, configurability, and its broader integration ecosystem. It works particularly well for organizations with complex recruiting processes and high hiring volumes. However, there is a trade-off in that the platform can be more complicated to implement and administer than some newer, more US-focused competitors. I would recommend iCIMS Recruit, and the decision would primarily come down to enterprise scalability, integration capability, and workflow configurability, along with the ability to support complex global recruiting environments. I give iCIMS Recruit a rating of 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?